Category: hate speech

The European Court of Human Rights has just before Christmas delivered a very controversial decision in Perinçek v. Switzerland (application no. 27510/08) concerning the denial of Armenian genocide. The Court did not find that Mr Perinçek abused his rights under Article 17 of ECHR and held that Switzerland violated Article 10 by sentencing him to pay a fine. The Court concluded that:

This decision is comparable to the case of Garaudy v. France the author of “Fundamental myths of modern Israel”, where author was sentenced to a suspended prison sentence and fined for denying crimes against humanity and the Holocaust (no. 65831/01, 24. 6. 2003, pp. 2–12) The Court stated that “denying crimes against humanity is therefore one of the most serious forms of racial defamation of Jews and of incitement to hatred of them. The denial or rewriting of this type of historical fact undermines the values on which the fight against racism and anti-Semitism are based and constitutes a serious threat to public order” (Ibid., para. 23). Judges Vučinić and Pinto de Albuqueque noted in their partially dissenting opinion that that “Dans cette mesure, le requérant a agi avec le même dolus inacceptable que l’avait fait M. Garaudy. Il a même agi de manière plus répugnante encore, en s’identifiant au personnage qui, selon les juridictions militaires turques compétentes, avait fomenté le génocide des Arméniens …” (para. 25). It would be interesting why the Court has decided to depart from its well-established law on hate speech and, particularly why denial of the Armenian genocide which is a historical fact was not considered as the violation of Article 17 of ECHR on prohibition of abuse of rights.